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Mary,
I'd be happy to tell you about the implants. I heard initially from other BC survivors, nurses and one PS that I most likely could not have implants due to the my radiation. I even had extra boosts of radiation because of the number of pos lymph nodes I had. Many PS won't do this and I understand why...the failure rate is high (like 70%). I had a few things going for me to have my PS feel that I would be a success story. I am relatively young, never smoked (that was a big plus), my radiation onc said that my skin was one of the best he had seen throughout the radiation...no burns, peeling or even redness, and I understood going in that the risk was high for failure. The PS felt I was in excellent physical condition and that the site of radiation showed no skin damage or scar tissue. I also had enough muscle left. That was another important factor. I had the expander placed under the muscle last Nov. with minimal cc's initially. At that time I also had an implant placed in my left breast to eventually match the new breast we were making. I went every two weeks for VERY small fills...that was also important I think. Once I only had 25cc's put in. If you didn't have radiation they can put in 100cc's or more! Radiated skin doesn't stretch as well, nor heal as well. This took 4 months...a long process and not the most fun part. But in March I had the exchange done (I am a small size C now). He took a section of my left nimple and grafted it on, took a line of skin at my bikini line and made the areola. It doesn't look like a perfect breast but I have to say that it is still awesome! It feels completely natural and is healing wonderfully. No complications at all. I know it is not permanent and eventually (about 10 years) I must exchange the implants but it was so worth it for me. I need to massage the implants weekly for the prevention of scar tissue but that is also something that all women with implants should do. I know it is not for everyone. I was limited to what I could do because of my size so I definitely was going to try this first. I don't regret it for a moment! I got three PS opinions and more opinions from my Onc and general surgeon....they also both said to go for it. My Dr. was wonderful and he is extremely experienced with reconstruction. He goes to weekly meetings for advances in breast cancer therapies and truly has his heart around this. I wanted a PS that knew more about breast cancer than most.
Hope this helps you in some way.
Peace ~ Ruth
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